Money order dispensing machines are well known in the prior art. Such machines typically include a number of moveable printing levers and a printing control arm. In response to a customer request, the machine operator positions the printing levers at a position corresponding to the requested amount of the money order, inserts a blank order in the machine and actuates the printing control arm. The above steps must be repeated each time a money order is requested by a customer.
Such mechanical money order dispensing machines have proven inadequate since they do not include any effective means for securing the dispenser. In particular, the machine operator can produce a "counterfeit" order by simply separating a blank money order into its separate parts, a customer portion and an issuer portion, and printing different numerical amounts thereon. Such counterfeiting techniques are facilitated by the simple mechanical nature of the prior art money order dispenser wherein blank money orders are inserted one at time for manual printing. In addition, the manual operation also makes the dispenser cumbersome to use and extremely slow to operate.
Improvements have been made in such dispensing machines as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,275 wherein one or more sets of money order dispensers are connected to one or more data collector devices, respectively, with the data collector devices, in turn, connected to a host device for controlling the overall operation of the system. In general, each of the money order dispensers includes a digital processor to control the operation thereof, a keyboard for entering transaction data to request the printing of a money order, and a display for displaying system messages and the entered transaction data. Memory devices associated with the digital processor are also provided for storing transaction data, operating programs and control data, and a dot matrix printer is used for printing alpha numeric indicia on the dispensed money orders.
There is a need for a negotiable instrument dispensing system and apparatus wherein the dispenser is located near a point-of-sale device, such as a cash register in a supermarket, or in a cconvenience store. In such case, the issuer of the instrument, which may be an institution such as a bank, an individual or any other entity, needs to be able to limit liability by controlling the number of instruments which can be issued by the dispenser over some predetermined period of time, the maximum value of any one of the instruments, and the total value of all the issued instruments in some predetermined amount. In like manner, the point-of-sale operator in whose establishment the machines are placed, the agent of the issuer, is also, of course, liable to the instrument issuer for the value of the instruments issued and therefore, must also be able to limit his liability. Consequently, the agent must be able also to determine the number of instruments issued over a particular period of time and the total dollar amount of the instruments issued.
In some cases, of course, the instrument issuer may also be the point-of-sale operator. For instance, in a bank, the bank itself may issue a negotiable instrument such as a money order. It may have a plurality of money order dispensers, one at each teller station. The instrument issuer, the bank, will have a central computer coupled to each of the money order dispensers at the respective teller stations to control the dispenser and limit the number of money orders which can be issued over a predetermined period of time, in a predetermined maximum individual instrument value, and in a predetermined total amount. However, in a supermarket, where a money order dispenser is located at and associated with, each of the cash registers at a checkout station, the check issuer, which may be a bank, may be remotely located from the supermarket and yet must have the capability to protect its liability. In that case, a remotely located computer will be in contact with the negotiable instrument dispenser through telephone lines or other communication channels to issue instructions to the dispenser to control the operation of the machine and limit the issue of a predetermined number of negotiable instruments over a predetermined period of time totaling a predetermined amount of dollar value. In like manner, since the point-of-sale operator, the agent such as a supermarket, must be accountable to the instrument issuer for the amount of instrument dispensed by the agent, it, the supermarket or agent, must also have the ability to limit its liability by checking on how many instruments have been issued over a predetermined period of time and their total value.
Thus, with this system, fraud by employees is eliminated or minimized, there is an accurate and efficient capture of sales information, and there is a system which is relatively easy to use to dispense negotiable instruments such as money orders by the check issuer's agents.